Author: Rick Mc

Olympic bronze medallist Beth Tweddle has swapped her high-flying bars routine for aerobatics wingwalking as she starts to enjoy the new-found freedom at the end of her gymnastics career.

The 27-year-old won her first Olympic medal at her third and final Games earlier this month in what could be her last major competition before her retirement. …

Read more: How do you beat an Olympic high? Go even higher! Gymnast Tweddle tries wingwalking

That article uses the conventional spelling – “Tweddle”.

But the new FIG Code of Points DRAFT has this spelling on this skill named for her:

Tweedle Elizabeth – Sole circle bwd with counter straddle hecht with 180 LA turn to hang in mixed L-grip

I’ll defer to the experts of the FIG WTC on best up-to-date spelling. 🙂

One sensible Australian principal.

BELMONT Primary School has declared itself a cartwheeling and handstanding school.

Banning either of these typically joyful childhood activities because of a concern about safety is just “overkill”, according to principal Mark Arkinstall.

If fact, Mr Arkinstall is adamant it is his school’s role to develop students’ physical capabilities as much as it is to work on their academic skills which is why climbing is also allowed.

Mr Arkinstall spoke out yesterday in response to news of a NSW primary school banning its students from doing handstands and cartwheels unless under the supervision of a trained gymnastics teacher.

“It seems to be a bit silly, you’d never get out of bed in the morning if you took that attitude,” Mr Arkinstall said. …

click for larger photo by REG RYAN

Schools encourage handstands, cartwheels

via @GymnasticsView

AshleyakaFlipper2:

Montage of my favorite gymnast McKayla Maroney …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Two-time Olympic champion in rhythmic gymnastics, Evgenia Kanaeva, has announced she is going to marry hockey player, Igor Musatov.

According to Allhockey.ru, Musatov proposed to his girlfriend after her triumphant return from the London Games. …

The date for the wedding hasn’t been set, but the ceremony is to take place this September. …

RT.com – Wedding bells for gymnastics diva Kanaeva (PHOTOS)

Unlike that Ponor engagement I foolishly linked to, this looks like the real deal. 🙂

I thought they were fairly close in performance of Yurcheno 2 1/2 twist, until I saw this shared on monigymnastics.

Compare the videos – Uchimura v Shewfelt v Maroney

Computer software could certainly have “judged” this apparatus more accurately than humans.

Who was it that questioned why the Men are so much better than Women on Vault? 🙂

Arabian Punch Front bemoans the lack of variety on Beam in 2012:

… The nice thing about NCAA is that there’s a pretty wide variety in moves. Not the same can be said for elite gymnastics even at the Olympic level where different countries come together to perform… essentially the same thing. …

… The dreaded and often overused front handspring – back handspring – layout wasn’t used as often as you might think. Only Ponor, Douglas, and Afanasyeva used the skill and Douglas was the only one to do the layout step out. Aly Raisman was the only athlete not to have a front aerial in her routine. Our sport is making some progress! Five athletes competed a side somi with mixed results – some looked pretty, some looked like they were getting ready to sit down. …

read more – Where Have All the Straddle Splits Gone?

Read the comments, too.

Here’s one series singled out for wonderfulness. Deng Linlin, our Olympic Champion.

That .gif is from the terrific monigymnastics tumblr. It’s almost worth joining tumblr to follow.

Pando Daily goes into the Stanford gym to profile a Silicon Valley start-up CEO.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

… I was a bit surprised when a former NCAA championship gymnast raised $17 million in funding late last year, not only didn’t do cartwheels, he kept it a secret–until now.

“It didn’t make sense for us to be distracted with hype, especially when it wasn’t important to our partners at the time,” explains Dan Gill, Co-founder, Huddler, which is a company that makes software that modernizes online forums …

Huddler powers 31 sites and field 24 million unique visitors monthly. It has been increasing revenue quarter over quarter and is on track for profitability in 2013. …

Pando – A $17 Million Round We All Missed

Existing online forum software is horrible. Ugly. Huddler MUST be a big improvement. 🙂

(via Dave Durante)

In an interview with Oprah Winfrey on Sunday, Olympic gold medalist Gabby Douglas said she experienced racism and felt isolated when she trained in Virginia Beach. The owner of Excalibur Gymnastics countered, saying the accusations are untrue.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Gabby is a fantastic gymnast, one of the best of all time.

Part of that success should be credited to the gym where she trained for 6 1/2 years.

I was disappointed that Gabby and her Mom, future millionaires, were unable to take the high road. And move on.

Instead they expanded on why Gabby left Excalibur. Good for ratings. Exactly the kind of talk Oprah wants to hear.

Women’s artistic gymnasts are as “protected” as any children in any city. The gym is an environment where there’s no profanity, and less racism than anywhere else in town. Gabby is far more vulnerable at school. Or walking down the street. In Virgina Beach or Des Moines.

This headline is not at all the main storyline of Gabby’s career:

Gabby Douglas to Oprah: I was ‘bullied,’ called ‘slave’ during early gymnastics training in Virginia

Hyperbolic sensationalism in the mainstream press.

Sad day for Gymnastics. One of the best stories of the Olympics gone sour.

Sam:

I owe my entire gymnastics career to these two amazing coaches!

instagr.am

Grigor Chalikyan & Albert Avchian.

Both are from Armenia. Now at SCATS, California, Sam’s home club.

He’s headed back to University of Michigan, not on tour.

THE fun is over for some Sydney schoolchildren who dare to do cartwheels and handstands in the playground.

Drummoyne Public School has banned handstands, cartwheels and somersaults during lunch and recess unless “under the supervision of a trained gymnastics teacher and with correct equipment.” …

The move has confounded parents such as Rebecca Chown, who has collected more than 250 signatures on a petition calling for the rule to be overturned. …

Fun over for schoolchildren at Drummoyne Public School as handstands, cartwheels and somersaults are banned

Principal Gail Charlier has yet to respond.

Here’s the real danger to Aussie kids:

… For children and adolescents, the 2007-08 National Health Survey results indicate that 24.9% of children aged 5 – 17 years are overweight or obese. …

source

(via @GymnasticsView)